Family commlinks - really? Options

[Daddy's Litt...]

The 4th ed rules on comm links and the fluff advetising project an image I find really scarey. You could have a family of four all sitting around of an evening, zoning out to their own shows and interacting not at all. Just sitting silent. I know the idea is from seeing teens zoning out with ear buds in but would family's really go this way? Do you have games where it happens or are those just the really rich or really poor who go that way?

RL I have two small children and yes there are times, like when they go to bed that I bless the silence BUT the noise of the evening in our house is noise and there is a music to it that I would miss, the tv on the girls playing, the girls fighting, their father sorting it out and them trying to act like nothing happened and so on. All the normal stuff that is a family. I think it's more likely they would have the trid going and parents telling teens, as they have for decades, "You will spend the time with your family."

[Yerameyahu]

This is already the case in 2010; there is no 'normal for a family'. The only weird part is that they'd even be in the same room to begin with, given that nothing about their activities would require it. It's hardly just teens zoning out, after all. Parents have their own smartphones.

[Machiavelli]

Welcome to the 21st Century. Feel useless.^^

[Daddy's Litt...]

I think it's the idea of the whole family zoning out together that is creepy- not just the kids playing with new tech.

[Yerameyahu]

Right, I said the only weird thing is the togetherness. Maybe houses are much smaller in 2070 (they should be!), but otherwise it wouldn't make sense. It's already pretty abnormal to find a family together in 2010; in SR, I'd expect them to be in totally different locations.

[Daddy's Litt...]

It might be cultureal as well. That could be interesting. My girls now are small- almost 3 and 5 years old, but growing up my brothers and I spent a lot of time with the family but that could just be cultural.

[Fortinbras]

The world of Shadowrun is supposed to be creepy and un-natural.
The familial conversation around a dinner table has existed for thousands of years. The idea that is disappears due to a technological blip should freak you, and the parents and grandparents of the house, the hell out.

To the children, however, nothing has changed. They still have a conversation with their parents around the dinner table, only the conversation is digital. They are getting updates to their status from each other every minute rather than every hour, which is a form of digital conversation; as relevant to them as a vocal one.

Go with one of those, depending on how dystopian you want to make your Shadowrun future.